Here it finally is! The post you've all been waiting for (or is it being? this is harder to figure out than 'then' or 'than'). I am you all remember the allusion I made renovating my snooker table at Christmas.
The table I bought for about £100 is a slate bed, 7 foot snooker table. The problem was the rubbers were old, the pockets were cut poorly, the cloth was old, and the woodwork looked a little tatty. So Gemma and I rolled up our sleeves and got dirty.
My table before I inexplicably decided to take it apart.
First we painted the entire thing white. It took a few coats but we got there in the end. At first, to protect the cloth (I wasn't sure if I was going to change the cloth at this time) we covered the cloth on the rails with blue tape.
Christmas time!
It looked so good we decided the blue stripe was a keeper!
Gemma paints a Teal stripe on my rail. Note the big-arse, oak snooker legs on the left of the photo. They came from a full-size table and will make more sense later...
Next we had to fix the rails. I took one apart and Gemma and I spent a few hours debating if we should remake these ourselves. With the correct tools it wouldn't have been too hard, but unfortunately we lacked a band saw and without a mould the shape the rubbers I decided it would be better just to get these done by professionals.
Prepping the slate for the cloth.
Following this we stripped back the cloth, wiped down the slate, and recovered with tournament grade cloth in a lovely deep purple. I have never recovered a table before, but had seen it done a couple of times. It wasn't too difficult, but would have been easier with a better staple gun.
Cutting the cloth to size (for the table and for the rails).
While I understand nap, at first I wasn't aware that the cloth can be put on upside down as well as back-to-front and nearly put it on wrong. Luckily I figured that out before it was too late, I also think I could have stretched the cloth a bit tighter as it seems slower than I would like it was tough to pull it neatly over the final side pocket.
Stapling the cloth to the table.
After that we had to cover the rubbers. This was the most fun. Luckily the store that redid my rails numbered each one and provided arrows to ensure I put the cloth on the right way, and then I spent ages watching a youtube video by billiards.com.au to learn how it was done (repeat x6).
Banging in the retaining slips on the cushions.
The final touches were drawing on the table markings and leveling the table. More time spent on the net learning the ratios of table length to dots, lines, and Ds followed by using coasters and a spirit level to set the table.
I used the string to make sure my line markings were perfectly centered. Gemma judged me. She judged me poorly.
I couldn't get it quite as level as I would have liked, it seemed to be bowing in the middle. So I jumped on Gumtree and found a bloke selling snooker table legs for 10 quid a pop and viola, my new and improved table!
Aaaaaaaaand done!
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